Barrel-O-Crazy
by jUsTp3aChY
Summary: This is the story of Embry and his imprint. It's awesome, trust me. It's only rated T because it's geared towards teen, only a little cussing, so anyone can really read it. Tbh though, I don't really know where this story's going
1. Chapter 1

_**This is my disclaimer! I'm not making any money off of this, so I'm clearly not Stephanie Meyer.**_

Chapter One

**Bex POV**

"Oh God, we just got off the interstate. That must mean we're getting close." I groaned, reaching over to the driver's side to clutch my brother's arm melodramatically. We'd been in the car for almost an hour, driving from the airport in Port Angeles to our new home in Forks, Washington. We had rented two cars, a blue Ford Focus and a black Ford F150. Carson and I were following my dad, in the truck, and we were _not_ looking forward to this move.

Our only other relatives live in La Push, the Indian reservation, but I'd only been up there a handful of times, and none of them recently. The only thing I really remember about it is the constant cold. And the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do up there. It's way boring. You can't even watch the grass grow, because there isn't any. It's either all woods or all mud, because it rains so much.

I _loved _my old life. Mostly because everyone loved _me_! I had all the best clothes, the hottest "friends," the coolest car. I was one of San Marcos High's most beloved cheerleaders. Everyone knew that next year when I became a senior, I would be named head cheerleader! These lofty aspirations were all taken from me late one night when my mother borrowed my car. She never got the chance to return it…

"Whoa. You're getting into some dangerous territory here, thoughts." I mentally chastised myself, shaking my head. No thinking about depressing stuff.

But anyways…the second Dad announced my impending doom, I Googled it. Forks has a total population of 3,545, according to the 2012 census. It rains 234 days a year, and even when it's sunny, it's cold. The beach isn't even a real beach. It has pebbles instead of sand! Pebbles I tell you! It's ridiculous! I tried to talk to the man. I tried to tell him! Normal people move from small towns to big cities. It's your basic theory of urbanization! But nooooooo. Not us Gilberts. We're moving from San Marcos, a small college town in Texas, to an even _smaller_ town halfway across the country.

His only reply was to say he thought we needed to be near family in times like these. I, of course, instantly realized what an insensitive bitch I was being. The man just lost his wife. He wanted to be near something familiar. To be honest, I don't think he could face living in the city the two of them had built their lives together in without her. But, what he didn't realize was that now, not only had I lost my mom, but now my whole life as well.

"Whoa was that it? Is that all?" Carson asked, taking his eyes off the road ahead to whip his head around and look behind us. We'd just driven down Main Street, which should have been the heart of this whole town. But there was only, like, eight buildings on it. The rest was all residential. The phrase "had I blinked, I would have missed it," came to mind. I voiced this complain to my brother. He's on my side of this whole moving thing, but also like me he decided to keep his mouth shut after realizing how much Dad missed mom.

"Oh God…That's pathetic….Haha sucks for you!" Carter taunted. He's only forced to be here for a weekend. Then he gets to return to his happy little life in San Marcos. He goes to college there. His life wasn't being uprooted. He gets to live in the dorms, same as always. He's just here to help us move in. He doesn't have to start at a completely new school, in the middle of the year. Come Sunday afternoon, he's flying back to San Marcos. "Can you believe that Dad used to live here?" He asked after a pause, during which the only thing we saw out of the truck's windows were trees.

"No." I snorted. "It must have driven him insane." It's true. Dad grew up here. He was the valedictorian of Forks High, back in the day, and his sister, my aunt Sarah, was captain of the softball team here. They lived in a little old house right across from the high school. They used to walk there together every single morning. The very same day he graduated from high school, Dad moved to Port Angeles to work for some big corporation, which eventually transferred him to Texas where he met my mother and started our family. He recently convinced his work to transfer him back to Port Angeles, committing himself to commuting an hour every day into work.

Aunt Sarah, on the other hand, stuck around. She married one of the native Quileute, a man named Billy Black, a few years out of high school. They had twin girls, Rebecca and Rachel, and a son named Jacob a few years later. Aunt Sarah died tragically in a car accident a few short years after Jake was born. Jacob really wasn't old enough to remember her well, but the twins took her death pretty hard.

Just like Dad, they couldn't stand living in a place where they had so many memories of their loved one. Also like Dad, they left the second they turned eighteen. Rachel got a scholarship, and is currently attending Washington State University, and Rebecca got married and moved to Hawaii. From what I hear, they hardly ever come back to visit.

We don't really talk to the Blacks much. Just the phone calls during the holidays, and mailed gifts on Christmas and birthdays. But from what I hear, Billy's diabetes has confined him to a wheelchair these past few years, and Jake's had to really step up and take care of him. Poor kid. He's had it tough.

Before long, we were pulling into the driveway of a small, two-story house behind Dad in the F150. It was redbrick with a grey roof, with a quaint little wrap around porch, set on a foundation about two feet off the ground, so you had to walk up a handful of steps to get on it. It was tiny compared to our house in Texas, but I guess we really didn't need all that much space since there'd only be two of us living here. And really, after I graduate next year, it'll just be Dad here.

Our new house had three bedrooms, with Dad's master bedroom downstairs so us kids could make more noise without disturbing him. Not that that was ever a problem before. He's such a work-a-holic, he doesn't really ever sleep. He just works. There were also two bedrooms upstairs. The larger one is mine. It's a corner room, so I'll have two windows. My bed is going to go under one of them, after I buy one tomorrow that is, and the other one has a built-in window seat under it. It's actually bigger than my old room! It'll be awesome once I get it all decorated and painted! It does have a conjoined bathroom with Carson's room, though. Since Carson really doesn't live with us anymore, we're just going to shove his bed in one of them and call it a guestroom while storing all of the boxes of junk that would have gone in the attic, if we had had one.

It was really late when we got in that first Friday, though, so we pretty much just dragged our baggage inside and crashed on pallets in our respective rooms. We were too tired to really do anything constructive, and we had to wake up bright and early to drive back into Port Angeles and shop for all our new furniture in the morning.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

The next morning started with a bang. I mean it actually started with a bang. My dad tripped over my suitcase coming in to wake me up, and banged into the floor.

"Are you okay?" I asked, jumping up and trying to stifle my laughter.

"I do not like disorganization." He replied, picking himself up off the ground with as much dignity as he could muster. Yup, he's fine. "We're leaving in about an hour, so hurry up and get ready." With that, he walked out of my room, luckily without tripping on anything else. I heard him go to my brother's room and to wake him up, so I hurried and grabbed my bag of toiletries so I could beat Carson to our shared bathroom. I always took longer to get ready than Carson anyways, so it makes sense that I should get the shower first. I feel like it should have been a house rule, but noooooo. First come first serve is what goes around here. All Carson really needs to do is run a comb through his hair and pull on a pair of pants and he's ready to rumble, but nope. I had to be a girl.

Every day I spend twenty minutes in the shower, twenty minutes painting my face, and thirty minutes straightening my hair, fifty if I want to curl it! And that's all before picking out what to wear. But hey, perfection takes time. And I did _not_ get voted the hottest girl at San Marcos High on the football team's annual hottie list by slacking off on my appearance.

Today was the exception though. We're going all the way to Port Angeles to furniture shop, so I didn't have to worry about any of my new classmates seeing me looking all gross and what not. So today I just pulled my long dark hair up into a messy bun and only slapped enough make-up on my face to deem myself not-horrible. Just some foundation and light eye make-up. Then I pulled on my baggiest, comfiest pair of gray sweatpants and my black San Marcos Bobcats hoodie. I figured we'd be doing a lot of walking around, so I also pulled on my black converse with the lime green laces. It didn't even take me an hour! The guys were surprised when I walked downstairs, ready to go on time for once. Dad was doing something on his phone, probably checking in with work or something, and Carson was lying on the floor, assuming that it would take me forever to get ready.

"Ready?" Dad asked, surprised. At my nod, he nudged Carson with his foot. "Come on, let's go." He grabbed his wallet and the keys to the rental truck off the bar, and we headed out the door. Dad was driving, so Carson climbed into the passenger seat.

That's another one of our stupid family rules. There used to be an intense battle whenever we went anywhere about who would get to ride in the front seat. I have no idea why, but it's always been a huge deal to Carson and I. It's a power thing, I guess. Anyways, eventually, the 'rents decided that, to make it fair, we would switch turns. We actually had a list when we were younger, but now we just keep track in our minds.

So since Carson got shotgun, I climbed into the backseat…all by my lonesome. "Let's get in, and get out. I don't want to waste the whole day shopping. Oh! And we're going out to eat with Billy for dinner later." Dad said, pulling out of the drive. "And no, you can't skip Rebecca." He said, seeing me start up from the backseat. Nothing against Uncle Billy, but I really don't want this town's first impression of me to be hampered by my wierdo family. I prefer not to be seen with them until I've made my own impression on this town. I crossed my arms and pouted, even though I really wasn't all that upset. It's just what I do.

"Is Jake going?" Carson asked. They're not all that close, but both of them being teenage boys and everything, they have a lot of common interests. Whenever we all get together, they always act like best friends.

"No. Billy said he's busy."

"Aw man." Carson complained. And then, the next eight hours of my life were spent sitting in a car and picking out furniture.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

"Glad that's over." I said, sliding into the front seat. Yup, it's _my _turn now.

"What are you complaining about; I'm the one that paid for it." Dad joked.

"You shouldn't of had kids if you didn't want to pay for us!" I replied. We'd managed to get all the furniture our new house needed in one trip. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so we're all going to have to sleep on the floor again. But, oh well. What are you gonna do?

Right now, I'm just glad we're on our way to go eat. Since Uncle Billy's been wheelchair ridden for a while now, he can't drive, so we have to go pick him up. So it was a full hour later before we were seated at a diner (and by a, I mean _the. _As in _the_ only diner), back in Forks.

It wasn't even that great of a place to eat, either. It was really just a burger joint. So we pretty much all just got burgers and fries. The whole affair was all pretty generic, including the conversation.

"So, how do you all like Washington so far?" Uncle Billy asked after a slightly awkward pause. We gave the appropriate "It's good," and then Carson broke the tension with some comment about how cold it is up here. After that, the conversation went pretty good, if a bit superficial.

"So how long you here for Carson?" Uncle Billy questioned.

"I'm catching a plane Sunday night. So, till tomorrow." He answered.

"Still majoring in business?"

"Yep, just like his old man." Dad answered for him, practically glowing with pride.

"And what about you Bex? Still cheering?" Uncle Billy asked, turning to me.

Bex is an old family nickname of mine. You know, Bex. Short for Rebecca. One of Uncle Billy's twin daughters is also named Rebecca, so it got pretty confusing whenever we were visiting each other, or talking about both of us. The other Rebecca is older, so she gets to keep her name. Everyone just calls me Bex now, even my friends back home in San Marcos who'd never met cousin Rebecca. Except my dad, that is. He still calls me Rebecca. I don't really mind. I've just been Bex for as long as I can remember.

"Um, no not really. I was, but we're moving here too late in the year. They already have the team, and most of the cheerleading season is already over, so…" I mumbled, looking down and twirling a fry around on my plate. Uncle Billy had touched on a sour point there. I love cheerleading, and the friendships it brings me, but I wouldn't be able to cheer here in Forks. Their team is already established. I've never _not _been a cheerleader before, so I don't know what I'm even going to do with myself.

"Oh. Well…there's always next year." He said, sensing my disappointment. Dad just kind of looked down at his food. I know he felt bad about uprooting our lives, and this just reminded him. I, of course, immediately felt like a jerk for making this harder on my dad. He's just doing what he thinks is best.

After a slight moment of awkward silence, Uncle Billy started talking again. "So how'd the furniture shopping go? Get everything you need?"

"Oh yeah. We furnished our entire house in just a few hours. They're delivering it tomorrow." Dad said, straightening up now that the conversation was back on safe territory. "That reminds me! I was going to ask you…We wanted to take advantage of the empty house tonight by painting it. That way we don't have to worry about protecting the furniture, you know. Where's the best place to get paint?"

"Probably Newton's Sporting Goods Store. It's right off Main Street. You can't miss it." He answered.

"Oh great! Thanks."

"Don't forget to use primer first. The white walls in our hallway? They used to be red. It took me about a million coats to cover it up without primer!" We all laughed at Uncle Billy for wasting all that time.

The rest of diner was spent trading stories about home improvement projects gone wrong. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. Uncle Billy is pretty hilarious! I'm actually kind of looking forward to getting to see a lot more of him.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

After dropping Uncle Billy off on the reservation, we headed back into Forks and onto Main Street to look for this Newton's Sporting Goods Store. It wasn't that hard, actually. When you're living in a town the size of a postage stamp, it's really not hard to find anything.

For my room, I ended up getting this awesome lime green color. Because I'm awesome, I also got a little bit of black paint (I only want my ceiling and one wall black, sort of like a design statement, I guess), and glow in the dark paint. Aw yeah! My room's going to rock!

After thinking about it again, Dad decided he didn't really want to deal with painting the rest of the house. He thought it'd take a lot of work for little reward, and I have to say, I agree with the man. So we were all just painting our own bedrooms (well, Carson was really painting the guestroom, but…who cares).

"Did you guys find everything okay?" the baby-faced guy at the register asked as he rang us up. He was…cuteish. I guess. He looked about my age, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and big cheeks. The nametag pinned to his sweater said his name was "Mike."

"Yep, found everything just fine thank you." Dad replied.

"So, are ah, you guys new in town? Or just visiting?" Mike asked. He was addressing all of us, but he was looking at me. I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes. Kid thinks he's smooth.

Dad apparently missed Mike's sentiment. "New. Just moved back up here from Texas. I grew up here, you know."

"No kidding?" Mike said, finally glancing at my father. "You must be the Gilbert's then!"

Carson and I looked at each other, both totally creeped out. I turned back to face Mike with my eyebrow raised.

"Forks is a small town. A _really _small town. You'll find that out soon enough." Mike said, sensing my discomfort with a grin.

"Ahh." I said. Perfectly logical answer, I guess, but I took a step back anyways.

"So…you guys going to Forks High?" Mike asked, once again looking just at me.

"Graduated." Carson grunted. I could tell that he was already getting tired of this Mike guy.

I said nothing, so I wouldn't draw any more attention to myself. But Dad just took this as a cue to talk for me. "Rebecca here is going to be a junior, though." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I could have killed him. I do _not_ want to get all buddy buddy with this kid.

"Oh cool! Me two! I'm a senior. I'm Mike Newton. My family owns this store." Mike officially introduced himself and held out his hand for me to shake. I took it reluctantly, just hoping this awkward little interlude would pass by more quickly if I semi-participated. "Maybe I'll…see you around."

"Yeah…maybe." I replied. Thankfully after that, Mike actually got around to ringing up our items, so we paid and left.

"Well he's…friendly." My brother mumbled in my ear on the way out. I could tell he's just laughing at my discomfort on the inside.

Then we drove home and changed into clothes that we didn't mind ruining with paint. We got all prepared to start painting, when we realized we didn't have a single paint brush in this entire house. We'd bought paint, but it never occurred to any of us to get any brushes.

"Well…now what?" Carson asked as we all stood in the hallway next to our respective paint cans, at a loss of what to do.

"Well…um." Dad scratched his head. "I guess I'll go call Billy really quick and see if he has any we can borrow." He whipped out his cell phone, and dialed the number. After a quick talk, he hung up. "He has a few we can take. We've just got to go get them." He said.

"I'll go, Dad. I've got to figure out the layout of this town soon anyways. And there's no time like the present." I said grabbing the truck keys with fake enthusiasm.

"Great. Thanks Rebecca. Carson and I will put down the tarps while we're waiting."

"Cool. Be back in a few!" I called, walking out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Ten minutes later found me pulling into the Black's driveway on the La Push reservation. It would have been sooner, but I missed the turn off. Give me a break! I'm new in town. I parked and cut the engine off, not even bothering to take the keys out of the ignition before sliding out of the rental truck. I guess living in a small town does have some benefits!

I climbed up some steps and crossed the porch, where I was faced with a dilemma: the door. Billy knew I was coming, and we're family and everything, so it's okay if I just walk in…right?

But we're not that close. Aside from lunch, it's been years since I've even seen him. I should knock.

But it's been years since I had to knock on a door! Normally I would have just texted whoever's house I was at that I was here and to 'get off their but and come let me in.' But the only number I knew for them was their house number, and calling them just to tell them I am here would be even more weird than me just walking in. I know Billy didn't have a cell phone, but I have no idea whether Jake did or not. I mean, what teenager doesn't have a cell phone these days? But then again, if he had a cell phone, why wouldn't I have a number?

"I should just knock…it'd be way awkward if I just walked in and we weren't close enough for that." I thought to myself, but I froze when I raised my fist to enact this thought.

"But what if Uncle Billy is the only one home?" I silently continued to second guess myself. "He's wheelchair bound. Wouldn't it be a lot of trouble for him to have to get all situated in his chair, and then navigate it to the door?" That seemed kind of rude to me, to cause Uncle Billy so much undue trouble.

The clock was ticking. I needed to make a decision soon, before someone came along and saw me standing there like an idiot. It'd already been a few minutes since my internal struggle began. I had just about convinced myself to go ahead and knock and hope for the best when the door opened, without me having performed any action. I jumped in surprise, the fist that was still hanging in midair falling to my side.

"Oh, ah…hey Jacob!" I tried to greet him naturally, but I don't think I really pulled it off.

"See!" I berated myself. "Jake was home! You should have just knocked, you loser!" Jacob looks a lot different than he used to. He's always been on the taller side, but he shot up about another seven feet (I'm exaggerating of course) since the last time I saw him. It also looked like he'd been hitting the gym a couple of times a day.

Jake still had the same black hair Carson and I had, advertising our Native American heritage, but since Jake had always lived on the res, he'd always been closer to his roots and tradition. His hair had always been long. Now, he'd gone and cut it all off. He was hardly recognizable.

"Hey Bex." He said looking around, probably trying to figure out what was taking me so long. "Were you planning on coming in anytime soon?" He smiled at me, but I think it was just to cover up the weird look he was giving me. I don't blame him. It had to look pretty funny, me just hanging out on his porch for no reason. On the plus side, the old Jake was much more recognizable when he smiled.

Wait a minute…how did he even know I was here? I mean…sure Uncle Billy probably told him I was coming, but there's no way he could know the exact moment I arrived…right?

Just when I was beginning to really overthink this whole situation, I saw the curtains on the window by the door twitch. Oh…right. If I remember correctly, that's the living room window. He was probably just watching television, and just happened to look out the window and see me drive up, or he saw the truck in his driveway or something.

The pause in our conversation got a bit awkward as I scrambled for a reasonable explanation for just standing on his porch. "Lie! Lie Bex! Lie!" My internal monologue screamed at me.

"Well I knocked, but no one answered. So I was just waiting here, you know, being polite and stuff." I said, hoping he would buy it. Curse me and my awkward weirdness!

"Really?" He asked. I nodded, even though I knew that he knew I was lying. But what are you gonna do? What's done is done! "I'm pretty sure I would have heard it." He said with a secretive smile, like he knew something I didn't. People up here just have a weird sense of humor I guess.

I shrugged my shoulders and stepped around him into the house, like it wasn't my fault his hearing is bad. I took a couple steps in and looked around.

The place hasn't changed much. Same faded wallpaper, same family photos, even the same old rug. The only thing that's changed is the size of the muddy shoes thrown by the door. These new shoes were huge. And there were a lot of them, especially for a place that only housed two boys. They ranged from tennis shoes to combat boots. And every single one of them was absolutely massive!

I turned to look back at Jake, noticing once again how big he's gotten. He's humungous! Over six feet tall and every inch of him covered in muscles. Cousin Jake looks like he could play for the NFL! Kid's grown up.

He looked over at the pile of shoes I had been looking at, then back at me. "Oh, I've got some friends over in the living room. But Dad's in the kitchen with your stuff. It's just through there." He said, pointing. Then he turned tail and headed back into the living room

"Thanks for the escort, cuz." I thought to myself. That was a little abrupt.

"He probably just doesn't like being interrupted when he's with his friends." I concluded, thinking back to all the times I'd yelled at Carson for barging in on Hayley (my best friend from back home) and my sleepovers…

I thought I saw a flash of ink on the top of Jacob's arm as he turned, but he was gone before I could get another look. Does he have a tattoo? That just seemed so out of character to me. Shaking my head to stop my thoughts from going off on these wild tangents, I headed the way Jake pointed.

I walked into an empty kitchen. Uncle Billy was _not_ in here. I could see some paint trays and brushes sitting on the kitchen table though. I picked them up, balancing them precariously in my arms, and looked around the kitchen for Uncle Billy again, like I had missed him. Still no one there but me.

I felt a little weird just taking their stuff, even though I had permission. But I feel like one of the Blacks should be there to, like, double okay it. But there's no way I'm bothering Jacob again, especially in front of his friends. With a sigh, I readjusted the trays and turned…then I hit a brick wall.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed. Well…it felt like a brick wall, but it turned out to be just another freakishly tall/ripped Quileute boy. He had his shirt off and…well, let me just say me likey! Talk about muscles…I had the impression of looking up…way up, to see his face. Of course, it took me a couple of seconds to register all of that. I had dropped all my borrowed items on impact, so I bent down to pick them up.

"Watch were you're.." He trailed off and his eyes got wide as I looked up at him.

"Oh sorry!" I said, apologizing purely out of habit. Then I thought about it, and my look turned into a glare. "Wait…no I'm not. You ran into me! You watch were you're going!" I threw back. I emphasized my point by poking him in the chest, balancing my stuff on one arm. Then I turned around and stormed out, without thinking twice about telling Uncle Billy or Jake that I'd gotten what I needed.

Had I looked back, I would have seen that he was staring at me, frozen, with wide eyes.

"The nerve of that kid. What's his freaking problem? Mutant mother fucker. Who does he think he is?" I muttered on my way out.

"Well someone's got a potty-mouth." I heard an unfamiliar voice from the living room say. Ordinarily, I would have taken this as my cue to go in there and introduce myself, by my little kitchen encounter had pissed me off. A lot. Rude people are like, my pet peeve. So I just continued storming out the door. I threw my crap in the back of the truck, and drove home a little faster than what was completely necessary.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

Half an hour later found me found me back in my new room, violently priming my walls. I was still kind of mad about that jerk back at the Blacks'. As I primed, I kept thinking of better comebacks and witty things I should have said. Isn't that always the way? Why can't we think of good comebacks when they're actually needed?

A small part of me knew that I was blowing it way out of proportion. So he snapped at me a little. The guy could have just been having a bad day. Everyone says things they regret every now and then. Even me, not that I usually admit it.

But like I said only a small part of me felt this day. The rest of me wanted to go track that guy down and _make_ him apologies.

"This was in the shed out back when we went out there for those tarps." Dad said, just barging into my room without knocking. Well, I guess I really can't blame him. My door _was _open. With him came the top part of a ladder, the rest extended into the hallway with (I assumed) Carson carrying the other half.

"You know, 'cause you're short." Carson grunted as he tried to maneuver the end of the ladder through my doorway without hitting anything. As much as I would love to argue with him and prove him wrong, he's not. I am short. And he's been giving me crap for it my whole life. So instead of throwing back some comment denying my…height problems…that we all knew would be false, I just shot him a glare and returned to my priming. They set the ladder up for me and then went back to painting their own rooms.

Manual labor (like priming your walls) doesn't really require much of your attention. I kept catching my thoughts drifting back to Jake's house and the guy I had run into.

Clearly Quileuten, he had the dark eyes, skin, and hair typical of Native Americans. It was cropped short though and, now that I thought about it, was exactly the same as Jake's. I'm pretty sure the unnamed guy also had a tattoo on the top of his arm. The same location as Jake's. "They must be really good friends," I decided, "to get matching tats and haircuts." But anonymous had had these deep, dark, mysterious eyes…

Lost in my daydream, his eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger in my imagination, until they were all I could see. In my mind, I could see the instant replay of his eyes wideneing with…shock? curiosity? something, whenever they had met mine…

"How's it going in here?" My head jerked around to the doorway my dad was now standing in. It was only then that I realized it had been a few minutes since I'd moved. I'd been standing there frozen, with paintbrush in hand, for who knows how long. I only hoped Dad hadn't noticed. I decided to play it cool and act like I had been being completely normal. I'd only been here for, what? A day? And it's already turned me into an awkward freak.

"Oh, ah…Good." I said, being as normal as possible. "Almost done with the first coat." I replied, getting back to work. It was true. I'd actually gotten a lot done before going off into La la Land. I only had the top part of the last wall left.

"Looks good." He complimented, glancing around. "I'm just going to see how Carson's doing, then I'm gona call for a pizza. There's a place here that still makes stuffed crust." He told me.

"Really?! Stuffed crust?" I questioned, my attention captured and brush freezing once again in midair. "Sounds good! Maybe Forks isn't so bad after all." I don't know about everywhere else, but everywhere back home hasn't made stuff crust in years. And we Gilberts like some cheese in our crust. It was pretty difficult coping, actually. So moving to Forks might actually be worth it, if this crust was for real. "I'll be down in a few." I said, working double time now. The faster I finish, the faster I can get me some pizza.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

A few hours later found me fed, watered, and working on my second coat of primer.

I'd forgotten how much better crust is when it's filled with cheese! The craziest thing happened while we were eating it, though. My cell phone rang. It was Ashley, my best friend from back home! I know what you're thinking…there's nothing crazy about a friend calling, but wait until you hear why she called! Turns out, Ash and some of our other friends had bought stoner's pizza and thought of me! Aren't they sweet!

And before you ask, no. I'm not a stoner. Stoner is just my favorite kind of pizza. It's this super awesome pizza with the most random stuff, like mozzarella sticks, on it that you can only get at Gumbys, this supper awesome pizza place in San Marcos. Isn't it crazy that we were hundreds of miles away, but we happened to be eating pizza at exactly the same time? I thought so.

It made me feel closer to them. We talked for about thirty minutes, about everything going on back home and how much I wished I was there. I finished my second piece of pizza as we commiserated about how much we missed each other. I washed my greasy hands in the kitchen sink, then started up the stairs, leaving my dad and brother sitting in that awkward silence around the pizza box.

I guess it's kind of rude to be on the phone during dinner, but I haven't seen my friends in _days_! And it's not like either of them were going to be much conversation. They're boys. The second you put some food in front of them, their attention wavers.

"So how is everyone down there?" I asked on my way upstairs. It seemed like an easy enough question to me. You give the standard reply of "everyone's good," and move on to something less generic. Instead, I was greeted with a tense silence. Something's going on back home, and I'm probably not gonna like it.

"About that…." Stacie trailed off.

"Alright. What is it?" I asked, freezing on the middle of the stairs, hand gripping the railing. "Just spit it out you guys."

"It's…Zane." Ashley finally said. Her voice was filled with hesitation and pity. Zane's my ex. He's kind of a jerk. "He's been all over Nickie Shavers since you left."

"Zane? That's what this is about? Zane! We broke up, remember? Who cares what he does anymore. He's a jerk." I laughed. I was actually nervous for a minute there!

Yes, for a brief but idiotic time, I did date Zane Perkins. It was a mistake, mostly because Zane is a huge jerk-off. But even after the break up, he never really let me go. He was always hanging around and making a pest of himself. He would follow me around like a little puppy.

I can honestly say I feel nothing for the guy anymore. Actually, I don't know if I ever _really_ felt anything for him. It was more of a…stereotyped arrangement, I guess you could call it. You know, hottest guy – hottest girl. Quarterback – cheerleader. You get the picture. It was kinda fun while it lasted, but Zane got way controlling and started taking "us" waaaaay to seriously. So I broke it off.

It really didn't have a chance to set in with him, because only about a week later, my mom passed away, and my entire life was uprooted. I got distant with everyone, not just him. Everything got put on hold, including dealing with him. And then, I moved away. I guess that's how you _really_ put an end to a relationship – moving.

As for Nickie, we've never really go along. She's a grade above me, a senior like Zane, and head cheerleader of my old squad. We've always competed over pretty much everything, but after graduation, everyone knew I'd be taking her place as head cheerleader. She reeeeeally didn't like that. I guess she thought I still had feelings for old Zanie-poo, and was trying to hurt me by messing around with him.

It's kind of pathetic, actually. I moved all the way across the country, and she still feels threatened by me. I guess I should be honored! But hey. I've released Zane to the world. If she wants him, she can have him! I don't care. Ever since Mom…well, all that old petty drama that used to make up my life just seems so stupid now. Inconsequential. It all seems so far away now. Well, since I moved to Washington, I guess it kind of is now.

"Oh I'm so glad you're not upset! I didn't think you'd be, but you never know…But for the record, Nickie's a total slut, and you're waaaaaay prettier than her!" Ashley said.

"Totally." Stacie added, and we all laughed. I started walking up the stairs again, towards my room.

"Man I've missed ya'll!" I sighed.

"We miss you two!" Stacie squealed.

"It's just not the same without you. Our entire group's dynamic is thrown off." Ashley pouted.

"Don't worry guys." I said into my phone once I figured I was out of my family's earshot. "I have to make a visit home pretty soon. To pick up my car." I said. The other end of the line got quiet. Anything even remotely related to my mother's death tended to turn conversations awkward.

"Oh. Yeah." Stacie said (if you haven't figured it out yet, Haley's phone was on speaker, so they can all talk at once).

"Listen Bex, about your mom…" Mykala started.

"Save it." I cut her off, a little too harshly. Instantly, I felt bad for snapping. It's not their fault Mom's gone. I shouldn't take it out on them. It's just, I'm so sick of people apologizing for my loss. They can't fix it, and she's never coming back, so why even comment on it?

I guess I'm really just tired of everyone pitying me. I know it's completely awful of me, but to be honest I just prefer not to think about it. Not to think about…her. It's just too painful.

"Sorry." I mumbled after a shocked silence.

"Don't worry about it, Bex guh." I smiled at Haley, my snow white best friend, talking with a gangsta's lilt in her voice. "You know we love ya, no matter what!"

"Thanks girl. Right back acha." I whispered, leaning my head against my bedroom wall. Belatedly, I realized that I probably should have checked to see if it was dry. Luckily, it was. "Alright well, I've got to get going ya'll. I've got four walls here just waiting to be painted." We said our goodbyes, and I got back to work.

I never knew painting was this hard! I'd used up rolls and rolls of painter's tape and had several tarps lain out, but it still took a lot of concentration to keep the primer off the floor, windows, and doors. Whenever I dripped it somewhere that it shouldn't have been, I had to hurry up and wipe it off before it stuck, usually with my hands. I was practically covered from head to toe in paint by the time I'd finished the second coat. Even an hour of scrubbing in the shower couldn't get all of it off! I had dozens of little white splotches all over me! And I had used a loofa!

At least I managed to get it all out of my hair. For a minute there I'd looked prematurely salt-and-peppered! Can you imagine? Like I was old or something!

"We definitely should have hired professionals for this shiz." I thought to myself as I climbed into my sleeping bag for my second night of sleeping on the floor.

"Thank Goodness the furniture is getting here tomorrow!" I muttered. "I don't know if I can last another night like this." Fortunately, depending on your perspective, it was so late by the time I finished that second coat, I fell right to sleep the moment my head hit the pillow and slept like a baby until I heard my brother stumbling around the next morning in the room next to mine.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

I woke up late the next morning with a headache from sleeping in a room filled with paint fumes. Probably not my smartest decision, but oh well. It's not like I had anything that important to do today. I could hear my brother tripping over stuff in his room next door. In fact, his loudness is what woke me up! "Like father like son." I mumbled, recalling my father's clumsiness from yesterday morning.

I drug myself out of bed and opened my windows, hoping to disperse the fumes and get some good clean air in here. Then I went out into the hallway where all my bags still were, grabbed some clothes and toiletries, and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

I dressed for another sloppy day, in athletic shorts and a tank top, hair up in a messy bun. It's still early in November, so I probably could have worn stuff like this for at least another half-month and been pretty comfortable back in Texas, but walking outside in this outfit here would probably kill me. I'd turn into a giant Bex Popsicle.

Did you know that they don't even have air conditioners up here? Even in their cars. You have to specially request them! And the craziest part is, you don't even need them! They just open a window and boom! They're cold. Up here, it's all about them heaters.

I really wasn't all that hungry, so I just got straight to work. I'm actually painting today! Man, it seems like all I've been doing the past two days is painting. Well, that's actually kind of true. We kind of have to rush fixing up this house, because Dad starts work on Monday, and I start school, and Carson's catching a plane Sunday night back to San Marcos. So this weekend's really all we have to get this stuff done.

Actually, since our furniture is getting here this afternoon, we have to have everything painted by then so we don't have to worry about messing any of the new furniture up. So, rush rush rush!

After about an hour and a half, I was done with that first coat of paint. And it looked pretty great, if I do say so myself! Now I just had to kill a few hours until I could put the second coat on.

You don't realize how much time you waste watching television, until you don't have one around to watch.

Eventually, I decided on a run. Just because I can't be a cheerleader anymore, doesn't mean I want to lose my smoking hot cheerleader's body! It never hurts to stay in shape.

"I'm going jogging!" I said, poking my head into the kitchen were Dad was drinking a cup of coffee.

"Alright, be careful. Don't get lost." He said absentmindedly.

"Be careful?" I snorted as Carson walked into the kitchen and reached for the cereal. "What do you have to be careful of in Forks?"

"Wolves." Carson grunted, even though this really wasn't his conversation.

"Wolves? What?"

"Yeah. I heard 'em howling all night long. Kept me up for the longest." He replied, rubbing his eyes.

"Cool." I thought. "Wolves."

I've always thought wolves are really pretty. In fact, they're my favorite animal. It's kind of a lifelong goal of mine, to have a wolf as a pet. Well, maybe not a real wolf, because there's probably laws against that, but like a dog that's part wolf or something.

"Yeah. Me two. They sounded pretty close to the house. I don't think it's anything to worry about during the day though. Just keep an eye out, and stay on the main road." Dad said.

"Sure thing. Be back later." I called over my shoulder. And with that, I left.

_**Sorry ya'll. I know it's slow going right now. Nothings really happened in the story yet. I'm just kind of setting everything up right now, that's why it's so boring. It'll get better. I promise 8)**_


	3. Chapter 3

I ran for a long time with my iPod on full blast. I didn't know the area, so I wasn't really sure how many miles it was. All I know was that, by the time I got back to my house, I was pleasantly tired and disgustingly sweaty.

I stuck to the main roads like I'd promised my dad, but "main roads" around here aren't that much different from the back roads. They're all pretty much bordered (at least on one side) by forest, and since there's not a lot of people in this town, there's not a lot of cars out on any of the roads.

There's really not much difference between the two, so Dad's warning really didn't matter much. All the same, to be honest, I kind of wish they hadn't even told me about the wolves.

I kept seeing flashes of gray out of the corner of my eye, like there was something running parallel to me in the woods. I would think I'd see something, turn and look, and it'd be gone. But a few minutes later, I'd think I'd seen it again. I was being crazy paranoid!

If it weren't for my dad and brother putting thoughts in my head, I probably wouldn't have seen anything. I _knew_ I was creeping myself out, but that didn't stop me from _being_ creeped out, if that makes any sense.

Aren't wolves supposed to be nocturnal anyways? Or did I just make that up? I'm really not sure. Ohmygod. What if they are and I really _am _seeing something, and that something really_ is _a wolf, and wolves really _do _only come out at night? Does that mean I'm being stalked by a rabid wolf? That can't be good.

Alright. Even I knew I was being a bit ridiculous. That's why I kept on running, to convince myself that I really wasn't scared. I probably ended up running more than I would have otherwise because of my pride, so I guess my fear was really a blessing!

Anyways, I was super gross when I got back home, so I rewarded myself for a good workout with a nice, long, hot shower. It. Felt. Marvelous! I changed into yet more lazy day clothes and dragged my still wet hair into a sloppy bun.

And in case you're wondering, those paint splotches I complained about? Yeah…they're still randomly dotting my body. I've never looked like crap for this many consecutive days, until we moved to Forks. Clearly this town is not having a positive influence on me. But whatever. When I walked out of the bathroom, I could hear people talking downstairs, so I went to investigate.

"There she is!" Dad said, cracking a smile and all heads turned to me as I walked down the stairs. Uncle Billy and Jacob had come over! Yey! Something to break this whole boring routine we've established!

"Speak of the devil!" Billy joked as he rolled forward to great me. He doesn't smile very often anymore. Not since Aunt Sarah passed away. But he was now. I guess he's excited to have some family in town now. With a smile lighting up his old face, like it is now, it's easy to see the resemblance between him and sunny ole Jacob.

"Very funny Uncle Billy." I said, cracking a smile of my own as I bent down to hug him. "Hey Jake." I said over my shoulder. "What are you guys doing here? Not that I'm not excited of course."

Uncle Billy opened his mouth to reply, but Dad cut him off. He has a bad habit of doing that. Don't get me to wrong, he doesn't do it to be mean. I don't even think he knows he does it. I guess it just goes with the whole big businessman thing. "They came to invite us over for dinner tonight." He answered.

I nodded my head in response. "Cool." I thought to myself. "Saves us from another night of eating out."

"Hopefully we'll still be alive tomorrow. You never know with these guys' cooking." Carson joked, and we all laughed.

"When he says you can come over for dinner, he means our neighbor, Sue Clearwater, can cook for us, then you can eat it with us at our table." Jacob laughed.

"Son, don't give away all our secrets!" Billy fake scolded.

"Aha. So that's you're secret! I knew the two of you couldn't have been surviving off of Billy here's cooking! Good lord boy." Dad said, standing back to get a better look at my cousin. "I just can't get over how big you've gotten." He leaned his head back in an exaggerated motion to get a better look at him.

"Six foot five now Uncle James." Jake said with a grin, clapping his hands together. Poor kid. He's probably sick of being gawked at. But he's just…so BIG!

"They sure do grow up fast, don't they James." Said Billy.

I could tell that the dads were about to launch into a really long, boring, and shallow conversation that I cared absolutely nothing about, so I decided to politely excuse myself. "Sorry guys, but I think my room's about due for another coat of paint. But I'll see ya'll tonight at dinner, okay?" and with that, I escaped upstairs.

It's not that I don't enjoy spending time with the Blacks, it's just that I'm the odd one out. Mom always used to go off and talk with Aunt Sarah, Dad and Uncle Billy would always pair off, and Jake and Carson would always hang out together. The twins used to be my companions, but they weren't here now. They've already gone out into the world and started their lives. So now, I'm the odd woman out.

That's why it surprised me ten minutes later when Jake came upstairs and joined me. I was just minding my own business, painting my walls, when I heard him knock on the frame of my open door. "Uh…hey Jake." I greeted, paint brush freezing in my hand.

"Got bored." He explained. "Can I come in?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. He was looking at me. Now I know when you're having a conversation with someone you're supposed to look at them, but this felt more like staring. Like he was inspecting my face for clues or secrets or something. It was a little awkward to be honest, but I'm not sure if that's because of the staring or the fact that Jake and I have never really hung out one on one before. Whatever. I'm probably just being paranoid again. "Need some help." He asked, nodding at my half-painted walls without stopping his staring.

"Yeah sure." Hey! If he's gona be weird, I might as well get some work out of him. "Thanks." I said, handing him a brush.

He actually turned out to be a really big help. He would paint the tops of my walls without even using a ladder. He hardly had to even reach! That kid is insanely tall, let me tell you. And with two of us, the work got done much more quickly. With all the painting I'd been doing the last few days, I considered myself something of a painting expert, but Jacob worked even quicker than I did! He was a huge help, but even so I kind of regret letting him help.

He spent the entire time asking me questions. He tried to throw me off his trail by stringing together a few normal sentances now and then to interrupt his questions, but I still felt like I'd been arrested and he'd been assigned to interrogate me. This is about how our conversation went:

"So…you guys are coming over for dinner, huh. Just out of curiosity. What's your favorite type of food?"

"Um…I don't know. Junk food?"

"Cool cool. What about movies. Do you like movies?"

"Yeaaaaaah…who doesn't like movies?"

"Okay yeah but, what kind of movies?"

"I don't know. Scary or comedy or action or something."

"Huh. What about your spare time? What do you do for fun?"

"Well, me and my friends used to like to go hang out at the river back in San Marcos. So…there's that."

"Sure sure. Speaking of friends…Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Do I...What?! How is this any of your business?" I would have proceeded to blow up on him for being a) annoyingly weird/awkward and, b) for sticking his nose into my business. But I restrained myself. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm pretty sure the boy has an ulterior motive.

"Oh, uh…Were we not playing twenty questions?" he asked, eyes flicking side to side. So Jakey-boy's a quick thinker, huh.

"Nooooooo!" I drawled, giving him a weird look.

"Oh, my bad!" He shrugged, then he appeared to be focusing on his paint job.

But I didn't buy it, and he knew I didn't buy it, but neither of us said anything. I would have called him out on his weirdness before, but you know, I haven't seen him in a while, and I didn't want to make things weirder than they already are. Besides, Jacob had always been awkward. Especially around girls, but I never thought that applied to me, seeing as how were _cousins_ and all. Wait. OHMYGOD! No! NO NO NO NO NO! He's asking me what I like, what I like to do, and if I have a boyfriend?! And he keeps staring at me?! OHMYGOD OHMYGOD!

JACOB LIKES ME. LIKE, LIKE LIKES 'S TOTALLY DEVELOPED AN INCESTUAL CRUSH ON ME! This is not good, this is sooooooo not good. What do I do? WHAT DO I DOOOOO? UGH!

Luckily, Carson picked that moment to appear (and extra luckily, we had just finished painting my room, so I got a lot of work out of Jacob during that insanely awkward conversation). "Hey! Room looks great." He said, sticking his head in my doorway.

"Thanks." I squeaked.

"You're dad wants you, Jake. I think he's ready to go." Carson said, turning to Jacob.

"Oh. Okay. See you guys at dinner, I guess." Jake said, giving us a little wave before heading for the door.

"Yeah, Later." I mumbled while thinking about how, at this exact moment, I wouldn't mind never seeing my cousin ever again.

"See you tonight, Jake!" Carson called, happily oblivious to the situation. Oh sweet, innocent, young Carson. Well, at least I have a few hours to come up with a plan! Unfortunately, it didn't matter. I don't think there's enough time in the world to fix this. Even as we were piling into our rented car, I was still planless.

But on the plus side, and on a completelly unrelated note, in that same space of time the trucks finally came to drop off and assemble our furniture. Our house is now fully furnished. Yeeeey! A real bed! You have no idea how excited I am about that.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

To my extreme surprise, dinner wasn't half bad. It was actually pretty great! Uncle Billy made us his famous fried catfish, with corn and loaded potatoes on the side (He said that neighbor lady made everything but the fish though). We Gilberts had stopped off at a the local grocery store and bought an apple pie and fruit salad for our desert. And let me tell ya, it was gooood. I don't even _like _sea food, but I ate every bite of Billy's catfish.

I don't know how he does it, but the man's a genius. His diabetes clearly hasn't affected his cooking. Now that I think about it, should Uncle B really be eating like this in his condition? Hmmmm….

Anyways, dinner was great. And not just the food part, the conversation as well. It wasn't awkward at all! Whatever weird vibe I was getting from Jake earlier was gone. He didn't ask me a single inappropriate question. Maybe I was just overreacting earlier, reading too much into the situation. He probably just couldn't think of anything to say before, so he just kept asking questions in an attempt at conversation. In any case, he seemed completely normal now. Hilarious in fact. The same old ray of sunshine I know and love… in a one-hundred percent appropriate way of course.

Conversations flowed naturally around the table, mostly just rehashing old memories. Like this one time, almost a decade ago, we Gilberts had come up here to La Push to visit the Blacks over Christmas break. The twins still lived here, and they had begged and begged Uncle Billy to let them adopt this mangy old mutt. He eventually gave in and let them keep it. They named the dog Buddy and played with it all the time, acted like it was their little baby boy.

Oh I forgot to mention that every year on New Year's Day, there's this _huge_ party down on First Beach that half of Forks and all of La Push attends. There's always lots of the three B's: bonfires, burgers, and beer! And everyone stays out there and parties till at least midnight, when we let loose more fireworks than you can count.

Anyways, this particular year, all the adults were getting drunk like usual (and most of the teenagers two, though they never get caught of course). We were all just kids then, and the twins brought Buddy with them to show off to their friends. After a while, all of us kids drifted over to the bonfire to hand out with the rest of the children, leaving Buddy with Dad and Uncle Billy.

Long story short, being the mature, responsible adults they were, the men decided to give the dog some beer. They'd had a few themselves, so no one really remembers how much the poor dog had, and they all swear it didn't have anything to do with what happened next.

When midnight came, we lit off fireworks like always, and Buddy took it upon himself to run (albeit crookedly) over to where a lit firework was sitting, just waiting to blast off, picked it up with his mouth, and run around the party with it. Everyone was running around trying to escape the sparks. It's a miracle the little guy didn't start a fire! Now _that's _one New Year's Party no one's ever going to forget!

Don't worry, Buddy lived. He just looked a little funny because he got a bit burnt. Billy made the girls get rid of him though. They gave it to a family friend.

"Man! Embry says that dog _still _has bald patches!" Jacob laughed, pounding the table in his merriment. We all like-to-die laughing.

We had been carrying on for quite some time. We'd all finished eating, but were still sitting around the table over our empty plates, just talking. We were still chuckling when we heard raucous laughter, loud male voices, and heavy footsteps on the front steps, seconds before we heard the front door fly open.

Dad, Carter, and I all whipped around in surprise in the sudden intrusion. Billy, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes and reached for the last roll, like having his house invaded was the most normal thing in the world. And Jacob looked faintly embarrassed.

"Are we expecting anyone?" Dad asked.

"Ugh…I told them not to come," Jake answered, but it seemed more like he'd been talking to me, not my dad.

"THE PARTY HAS ARRIVED!" exclaimed the first boisterous male to hit the kitchen. He threw his arms wide to emphasize his point, and his arm-span was about half the length of the whole room. This was a _big _boy. Utterly and completely ripped. And every single boy that piled into the kitchen after him (there were three in all) was just as tall, and just as muscular. Oh my _goodness_! I feel like People Magazine's sexiest man alive competition just walked through the door.

Not wanting to get caught eyeballing guys I barely knew, I looked around again to gauge everyone else's reaction.

Dad, always prim and proper, hadn't quite gotten over their barging in on our family meal yet. He was staring at them, waiting to be introduced I guess. Billy leaned back in his chair, roll in hand, just watching, like this was a television show about to unfold or something. Carter was trying to hold back his laughter at the first guy's antics, and Jacob was just shaking his head and said something to them in another language, I'm assuming Quileute.

"My friends," he said after catching my glance, though I'm relatively certain that wasn't what he'd said before. "They're kind of idiots. Just ignore them." He tacked a wink onto that last sentence before turning to the new comers. "How goes it?" He greeted, sounding a little annoyed.

"Not bad Jakey-poo, but don't think we didn't hear you!" The first guy said. "I had no idea you felt that way about us man! We love you two!" He bounced over to Jake's side and threw an arm around him. Not to hug him or anything, but to give him a noogie.

"Yeah man, you'll pay for that later." Friend number two rumbled in a deep baritone. He also walked over and assaulted Jake, this time by punching him in the arm.

I had to roll my eyes at their behavior. These guys may look like men, but they sure act like boys. I didn't even know how to respond, having never met these guys before and have them come bursting in on a family dinner while being supernaturally loud and obnoxious, so I turned to my family to try and gauge their reactions once again.

Dad looked about as surprised and unsure as I felt, but Carter was guffawing right along with them, completely at ease. Must be a teenage boy thing…

"Ugh! Get off me!" Jacob groaned, swinging his arms around to fend them off, and almost hitting Dad in the process.

"That's enough boys." Uncle Billy said in his authoritative voice, and all shenanigans immediately stopped. "Don't break my house now."

"US? _NEVER!_ We're perfect angels, Billy-boy!" Friend number one said. That guy is definitely a character.

"Sure sure." Jake laughed.

"Now why don't I believe that?" Uncle B chuckled.

"Anywho…" Jacob said with an eye roll, "These are my friends. Quil Ateara (that was the really lively one, friend number one), Seth Clearwater (friend number two), and Embry Call." I could have sworn Jake glanced at me before saying the last name. The last guy was still standing in the doorway, leaning up against the frame. He'd gone completely unnoticed in the previous commotion. He hadn't moved and he hadn't spoken; all he was doing was looking at me. I don't even think he was blinking. It was actually pretty uncomfortable.

But I've gotta hand it to the guy, he's pretty hot. Maybe it was wishful thinking, or my over-active imagination, but it almost seemed like he was looking at me longingly, lovingly.

"Soooo…yeah. That's Embry. Those are my friends. Verry very good friends." Jacob rambled, slowly and awkwardly. I tore my gaze away from Embry's to give Jake a questioning look. I'm definitely missing something here…

Embry. I made sure to remember his name. Wait a minute…he looks familiar…I know that guy! My head whipped back around to look at him. That's the jerk I ran into the other day when I came over here to get the painting stuff! He was so _rude_!

"Yes. We've met." I cut off Jake's awkward rambling. On the surface, my tone was polite enough to get past the adults (I didn't want to have to suffer through a lecture on manners from my dad on the way home), but every teenager in the room could feel the frostiness in my tone. I looked Embry dead in the eye and raised an eyebrow at him.

His gaze didn't lose a shred of its intensity, but half of his mouth tilted up in a slow, sexy smile. Dang it. I was supposed to be coming off as disdainful, not as amusing. Giving up on Embry and my silent battle, I turned to Jake's other friends.

They were all looking at me. Every single one of them. They were just standing there, studying me, looking between Embry and me expectantly. Actually, the smiles on their faces were borderline creepy.

Wait a minute! I know what's going on here…Embry must be antagonizing me on purpose! This was probably just some weird source of entertainment for them. Playing jokes on the new kid in town and what not…Well. I'll just show them! From this moment on, I r_efuse_ to let them get to me. I will remain calm and collected. Cool as a cucumber.

While I was thinking all of this, an awkward silence, which Embry alone seemed to be immune to, descended upon the room. I guess my brother finally had enough of it because, after a moment, he stood and started balancing his glass and utensils on his now empty plate.

"Want me to just put these in the sink Uncle Billy?" he asked.

"I'll help you." I said after Uncle Billy nodded, jumping up out of my seat and balancing as many items on my plate as possible.

"I can help!" Embry said excitedly, taking a step forward.

"Um…I think we got it." Carson said, his tone full of unvoiced questions. I could tell he was finding this whole exchange just as weird as I was.

"Well." Billy said suddenly, banging his hands on the table and pushing himself back. "Come on James. I'll show you my new fishing pole. Maybe you can go fishing with Charlie and I sometime."

"That'd be great. I'll be busy with work a lot of the time, but if I can work it in…" I could hear Dad saying as they walked out of the room.

Carson and I were still at the sink, but both of us turned our heads to watch them leave the room. Our own father, abandoning us in a room full of awkwardness. Tisk tisk.


	4. Chapter 4

Eventually we moved our little party away from the awkward kitchen scene and into the slightly less awkward living room scene. At least now we can look at the T.V., so we're not just sitting around. We have the illusion of doing something.

I quickly sat myself down on the recliner, just to make sure that that Embry guy wouldn't try to get all cuddly with me. I thought he might have taken this as a hint to calm himself and act like a normal human being, but he just sat on the loveseat across from me, next to Jake, and watched me instead of the TV.

Carson sat on the ground in front of me and leaned back against my knees, and the rest of the guys all squeezed onto the big couch across from the television.

So we're just sitting around, watching this really twisted show called 1000 Ways to Die. And it shows this story about some teenager trying to escape detention who, long story short, the guy falls off a ledge and to his death.

"Ugh!" We all groan as soon as he makes impact.

"That has to suck!" Carson says.

"Paul, that's totally you!" Jacob laughs.

"You can't keep making fun of me for high school stuff. I graduated! It's somebody else's turn to take all the trouble-maker jokes." Paul replied.

"He couldn't go a week without going to detention." Seth informs Carson and me.

"Yeah, right." Paul snorts. "It wasn't my fault! If teachers didn't write me up, I wouldn't have had to go to detention! They should just be happy I showed up.

"To school? Or detention?" I ask.

"BOTH!" Paul exclaims, and we all laughed.

"Well, since Paul can't be the idiot that falls off the ledge, I guess it's just gonna have to be Embry." Seth decided. "He's the one with the second most detentions."

I looked over at Embry to see if he would do anything, but he just started smiling. He seemed to care more about the fact that I'm making eye contact with him than the fact that his friends were ragging on him.

I quickly looked away, not wanting to give him the wrong impression.

I tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear Quil say: "Na, it can't be either of them. None of us would die from falling off a ledge." Quil snorts, but the rest of the Quileute whip around to glare at him. Carson and I shoot him weird looks.

"BECAUSE WE'RE SO HANDSOME!" He shouts in a ridiculously over-exuberant way and chuckles uncomfortably. Clearly he's trying to cover something up. "Not for any other reason or…anything" he trails off awkwardly.

I look at Carson to see if this guy is making any sense to him, but he just shrugs. Maybe it's some kind of joke? Idk. But some red flags definitely just got raised.

"Just shut up." Embry says with a shake of his head, effectively ending Quill's floundering.

We all sit there for a moment in yet another awkward moment. Just when it's beginning to get unbearable, a commercial for Fast and Furious 6 shows on the TV.

"OOOOOHHHHH! I WANNA SEE THAT!" I exclaim, pointing at the screen excitingly. "

"We should go see it!" Embry blurts out, sitting up straight in his excitement.

"Erm, okay." I say, completely uncomfortable. I mean, I would loooove to go see that movie, but I'm pretty sure he meant it as a one-on-one kind of thing. And I definitely did not know him well enough for that. He's just making this so awkward!

Yet another little awkward silence took place. Everyone shifted uncomfortably.

"We should all go." Jake saves. How nice of him.

"Yeah! It's coming up soon. We can go opening night." Seth says, turning the cover up legitimate.

"I'm in." Paul declares.

"Aw, what a pity I won't be here." Carson aw shucks. "And I'm so curious about what's going on with Letty!"

I shot him a secret look of betrayal, but he just smirked. The boy enjoys my pain (well, discomfort really), I swear!

When I look back at the room in general, I realize that everyone is looking at me expectantly. I haven't confirmed my involvement, so I dutifully say, "Sounds good. Can't wait," and I swear it was only like half forced. I really actually am looking forward to the movie.

But all further conversation and planning was put on hold when 1000 Ways to Die came back on, showing a particularly gross way to die – I won't scar you with the details.

We haven't even finished groaning at the awfulness of it when the 'rents moseyed on in.

"Come on Gilberts. Say goodbye. Time to head back home." Dad said to Carson and I. "Nice seeing you Jake. Boys. See you later Billy! Get back to me about that fishing trip." He said, reaching over to shake Uncle Billy's hand. Then he walked out the door to go wait for us in the car.

"Alright well, looks like we're leaving. Bye Jake, Uncle B." Carson says giving each of them a handshake.

"Bye Uncle Billy. Bye Jacob." I say, walking over and giving each of them a hug. I couldn't help but notice that, as I looked over Jake's shoulder, Embry was staring at me with those puppy-dog eyes of his. He looked so sad to see me go. His brown eyes were staring deeply into my blue ones. ! I almost didn't want to leave…

And then I shook myself out of that little daze and came to my senses. I've known the guy for five awkward filled minutes and I've managed to develop a school girl crush on him? What the heck? I'm being so stupid right now. I do NOT like that boy. PERIOD.

"Bye guys, see ya around," I said when I came out of the hug, purposefully addressing the entire room and not a specific _someone_. I flicked my wrist in a casual wave, and then headed for the door.

"Nice meeting ya'll." Carson called over his shoulder, giving a more proper wave before following after me.

I got shotgun on the ride back to the new house because Carson had gotten it on the way to the Blacks. Originally I was excited about it, but I changed my mind after a few minutes of endless chattering from Dad.

He talked the whole. Way. Home. Praising the food, talking about how much Jake's changed. He was in such a good mode that he even forgot to criticize Jake's friends for their lack of propriety.

It's good to see him happy for a change.

We haven't seen him like this since before Mom's accident.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

We made it home in one piece (thank God) and Dad went into his room while Carson and I started up the stairs.

"So what'd ya think, Bex?" He asked as soon as Dad was out of earshot.

"It wasn't that bad. It was actually pretty fun. Jake's changed so much though! He's so. TALL." I said. "And his friends are freakin crazy. I thought Dad was gonna give them a piece of his mind there for a little bit." I added.

"Speaking of Jake's friends…it's a good thing I'm leaving tonight and can't make that movie night. Wouldn't wanna crash you date with your new BOYFRIEND!" he teases. He twisted his face into a ridiculous expression and made me laugh.

"That was weird, right?" I exclaimed dramatically. "I thought it was just me."

"Do me a favor." He said, grabbing my arm to stop me and looking me in the eye with a serious expression, so I nodded. "No popping out Quileute babies while I'm gone." He started laughing and running away before the words were even out of his mouth.

"Not funny CARSON!" I yelled.

Okay. It was a little funny… but mostly just irritation.

Only Carson can piss me off and make me smile at the same time.

This didn't stop me from chasing him around and threatening him at the top of my lungs, though. I kept attacking, and he kept running away.

Oh, you know. Just your typical sibling activity.

I don't even know how long we kept on like this, but we didn't stop until Dad yelled that he was ready to take Carson to the airport.

"Alright." Carson said as he rolled me off of him (I'd been trying to smuggle him with a pillow). It didn't take nearly as much effort as I would have liked…but whatever. We'll just say I _let _him push me. "I gotta get going. Truce?" he asked, offering his hand.

I looked at him for a minute, trying to see if he was trying to trick me or not. He looked serious enough, so I put out my hand.

"Truce." I verified. But I should have learned about that serious expression earlier. I _barely _managed to dodge the headlock he tried to pull me into. And I thought it was just a handshake.

Luckily, I did manage to evade it.

"Come on, I'll help you with your crap." I grumbled, deciding to be the bigger person and not retaliate. Hey! There's a first time for everything.

So I helped him load up the rental car, then hugged him goodbye.

"Bye bubby." I said, using his old nickname.

"Take it easy kid. Watch out for Dad for me. Call if you need anything." He said, returning the hug (no headlocks attempted this time).

"Will do."

A little moment of silence followed my reply – we're really not used to serious moments between the two of us. It's kind of…weird.

"It's gonna be alright Bex." Carson eventually said, pausing with his hand on the door handle.

I nodded and looked off into the woods. For some reason, I found it hard to meet my brother's eyes.

We may joke around and fight a lot, but he really is a good brother to me. If you ever ask one of us, we'll deny it, but we actually do love one another. Like now. Everything's different and he's going away and leaving me here, but he's promising that if I ever need him, he'll come running, and reassuring me to the best of his abilities.

Wait…what was that? I was still looking out into the woods, and I could have sworn I saw movement out there.

Okay, maybe not sworn, but I _thought _I saw a flash of something…

Maybe it was nothing. No big deal.

I didn't have much time to worry about mysterious beings lurking in the forest near my house though because Dad's walking out of the house distracted me, and I had to look away.

"See ya Christmas break bubby!" I said, coming back into the moment.

"Yeah, see ya." Carson replied as he got in the car.

Dad got in as well and started it up. I was still standing outside as Dad put the car in gear and started backing out, but Carson stopped him by rolling down the window and sticking his head out.

"Oh! I almost forgot!...REBECCA AND EMBRY SITTIN IN A TREE K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" That jerk sang as they drove down the street.

A ran after the car playfully, grabbing handfuls of grass and throwing them at the car as I went.

The _entire_ neighborhood could hear him!

Scratch what I said earlier. My brothers a jerk.

I gave up the chase and heaved a sigh, walking back towards the house. I'm ashamed to admit I caught myself looking at the forest every now and then.

"I'm alone for half a minute and I'm already convincing myself that monsters are chasing me." I muttered to myself as I walk in. I made sure to lock the door behind me – Dad has keys, monsters don't. Okay, so my logics a little faulty.

And without further to do, I went to bed. Gotta get all rested up for the big day tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright. It's go time." I pepped myself up as I stepped out of my morning shower. Today is my first day of school, and a good impression is essential. I have to look absolutely perfect.

After much deliberation, (and with about fifty discarded outfits on my floor), I settled on a cute, flirty little skirt, a tank top, some super cute high heeled ankle boots and my leather jacket. Admittedly not an outfit best adapted to my new environment (that jacket's not very warm, or water proof, and those killer shoes probably will get me killed in all this rain and ice and snow and stuff up here), but I don't even care. Making an awesome impression as the new hot girl is way important.

Besides, I'll be inside most of the day…right?

Once clothed, I spent at least another on make-up and hair – making sure that it's curled and poofed to perfection. I threw on a crap-ton of accessories, and I'm ready to go!

By the time I finished twirling around in front of my mirror, I only had about twenty minutes until school started. Guess I'm not eating breakfast then. At least Daddy wasn't there to hassle me about it. He's already left for work, and I've gotta get going myself. Being late on the first day is not a good idea.

It's not like we have any food for breakfast anyways. No one's been grocery shopping yet, we've just been eating out for all our meals. With a sigh, I made a mental note to go shopping after school as I grabbed my purse and headed out the door.

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

I made it to the school, took a trip to the office, and found the right classroom, all before the tardy bell rang. I. Am. Awesome!

Now I'm just kind of siting around, waiting for the teacher to show up and start teaching, and trying to look like I don't care that everyone around me is starring and stopping their conversations as soon as they notice me. And I'm pretty sure that my awkwardness is actually slowing down time. Yeah. Not cool.

I was on top of the social pyramid at my old school! Cheerleader, Youth Fair Queen, Fort Bend County Fair Queen…I dated THE QUARTERBACK for goodness sake! I had more friends than I could count!

And now, here I am, pretending to be fascinated with the dry erase board at the front of the room, without a single friend to commiserate with. This. Sucks. I am so out of place, not to mention overdressed. I am seriously regretting all the effort I put in this morning. Everyone else is walking around in jeans and sweaters, with big bulky jackets. I stick out like a sore thumb! Well, actually more like a well put together, trendy thumb…but I digress.

Okay, this teacher is now four minutes late. That is four minutes less of rushing I could have done this morning. Ugh.

Just when I was seriously considering quitting school and becoming a stripper, just to get myself out of this whole situation, the door opened. I thought it was the teacher coming to put an end to my purgatory, but it wasn't. Instead, a tall, pretty, Asian girl walked into the room like she owned it. She waved to a couple of people before starting to weave between desks.

"Late again? You're lucky Raisin's not here yet. She'd flip!" Said a boy sitting near the door.

She just shot him a smile and rolled her eyes before dropping into the empty desk next to me.

"Hey. Who are you?" She asked, turning to look at me.

"The new girl." I answered, giving her a friendly smile.

"Oh! Well, hello. Welcome to Forks!" She said, throwing her arms wide dramatically. "I'm Tawny."

"Thanks." I laughed. "I'm Bex."

"And I'm Jennifer!" The girl in front of me whipped around quickly and flashed me a ridiculously big smile. It seemed that Tawny had broken down the barrier between me and all the other kids. But that Jennifer seems a little too eager to me.

But hey, beggars can't be choosers, and I'm not about to blow off a potential friend.

"So where you from?" Tawny asked conversationally. "And why'd you leave? I mean, honestly! Who moves TO Forks?" She laughed.

"I know right!" I giggled, and then I realized that I'd just dissed her town. "Not that there's anything wrong with Forks, it's just a little small…"

"Oh puh-leaze." Tawny laughed. "This is pretty much the smallest place on the planet. And the rainiest."

"Don't I know it!? But yeah, I'm from San Marcos, Texas. It's pretty small two, but it's got nothing on this place!"

"Well, welcome to Forks anyways." Tawny said with a smile while the other girls nodded and smiled.

"So you're a sophomore, right?" Asked Jennifer.

"Mmm Hmm."

"Us two!" Exclaimed Jennifer.

"Oh cool. Maybe we'll have some more classes together." I replied.

"Just to warn you, you're going to hate this class. Mrs. Raisin is 100% undiluted evil. She'd yell at Jesus, no lie." Tawny cautioned.

"Ugh! For real?" I groaned. All three of them nodded. "And we have her first period? What a way to start the day!" I said sarcastically.

"Yeah. You'd better enjoy this time here, because this will never happen again. Mrs. Raisin is one of those 'use every second of every class' kind of teachers. And she's, like, never late." Tawny continued. "Oh! Speak of the devil." She whispered, gesturing towards the door and flashing me one last smile before turning around in her desk to face the front of the room.

I looked where she'd gestured to see a super old, mean looking lady walk in the room. Mrs. Raisin I presume. Well she looks absolutely…unpleasant. Great.

"You'll need you're books today. Now how many of you left them in your lockers?" She asked as she made her way to her desk.

About a third of the class raised their hands, and Mrs. Raisin heaved a great sigh and began scribbling away on a sheet of paper at her desk.

"Well, go on then. Go get it. This counts as one of your passes." She said, real brusque like.

"See what I mean?" Tawny whispered.

I just smiled, because I wasn't too sure what to do with myself. It's my first day – I don't have a book yet, and it's not like I can participate until I get it, but teacher looks pretty busy over there, and she doesn't appear to be in a very good mood…I'm not exactly expecting a very warm welcome, from this lady at least.

Luckily, I was rescued from my uncertainty before too long.

"Mrs. Raisin?" Jennifer called, raising her hand high and wiggling her fingers excitingly. "We have a new student. This is Bex." She said loudly, gesturing towards me. It seems I was right about her before, she's too eager. She's just trying to draw attention to herself through me, like 'ooooh! Look at me! I talked to the new girl!' "She doesn't have a book yet."

"Right. Rebecca Gilberts is it?" Mrs. Raisin asked, sliding her glasses up her nose and looking at a piece of paper from her desk.

"Yes ma'am. But I go by Bex." I answered, I'm nothing if not polite. It's those home grown southern manners coming out I guess. But I regretted my good manners as soon as I heard the reply.

"Rebecca's you're proper name, so that's what we'll use. We don't do nicknames in this class. We let one person change their name and before you know it, everyone wants to be called something different. There's nothing wrong with the name your parents gave you. Now, I believe you have a form for me to sign, Rebecca? "

"Uh…yeah…" I shot a quick glance over to Tawny who just rolled her eyes.

"Told ya." She whispered, as I stood with the necessary paperwork and made my way up to the old hag.

Mrs. Raisin signed my form, issued me a book, and gave me a copy of her class syllabus, briefly explaining her rules and impressing upon me that she would not stand for any "funny business in her classroom, but if I listened to her and her rules, we'd get along just fine."

She certainly gets straight to it.

By the time she'd finished with me, everyone had returned from their lockers with their books, so she started class. She didn't even wait for me to make it back to my seat before launching into her lecture. Goodness gracious.

It's sophomore English, so she was doing the typical Romeo and Juliet spiel, that every one's heard a thousand times. No need to pay attention.

I was in my own little world, until a flying piece of paper landed on my desk midway through class and drew me back.

_Hey. Don't have your number, so I'm kicking it old school with a note! Lol! Just wanted to say that you should sit with me and mine for lunch 8)_

_-Tawny_

Excellent! Its only first period, and I've already got a place to sit at lunch! And I'm pretty sure Tawny and I are gonna be friends. Maybe this whole moving thing will turn out alright after all…

o*O*o*O*o*O*o*O*o

A few hours later found me following the crowd in the hallway to the cafeteria for lunch. I'd finished that awful English class, was issued some gym clothes and met a few new people without having to actually participate in Athletics, and was the object of much admiration in Computers (finally my hard work on my appearance this morning was being appreciated).

Things were going pretty good, as far as first days go, but I was seriously dreading what comes next: lunchtime.

As every new kid knows, choosing a seat at lunch is mondo stressful because you don't know anyone. How will this person react when you sit next to them? Will they be welcoming? Or tell you to move?

And I know Tawny already offered to let me sit with her, but what if she was just kidding, or changed her mind or something? She didn't seem like that type of person, but you never know…

Okay…even I didn't _really _believe that.

But how am I gonna find her? And what if I make some kind of social fo pa ***(sorry! Not really sure how to spell that)*** before then? I don't know all the social norms around here!

Who you sit with at lunch is absolutely crucial, because those people inevitably become your main group of friends.

Every step I took to the cafeteria was weighed down with dread. Ugh! What am I gonna do!?

The tide of students swept me into the cafeteria before long, but I stayed by the door looking around for Tawny but trying not to make it too obvious that I'm freaking out about finding her.

Man! For a small school, there sure seems to be a lot of people in here…I've been standing here just looking around for a loooooong time. Maybe I should just randomly sit down somewhere and hope for the best…OOOH! There she is!

I finally spotted Tawny across the cafeteria, smiling at me and waving enthusiastically. Thank. Goodness. Relief positively rushed over me, but the nerves returned when I felt practically every eye in the place staring at me as I walked over to Tawny's table.

"Hey." I greeted, unsure.

"Hey. You're finally here! Sit down." She said, pointing to an empty seat. "Let me introduce you to some of my friends. Guys, this is Bex." Everyone waved as they were introduced.

Addison Segil was the girl sitting to my right. She's your average girl with light brown hair and coffee eyes. Suuuper skinny, in an endearingly awkward way. She's kind of quietish, but she certainly seems nice enough.

The only other non-outgoing member of the table was a girl named Bethany Williams. She was also pretty much the only person besides me wearing a skirt – the entire rest of the school was in jeans, so we completely stood out. She had light brown hair with natural highlights, and blue eyes that you don't get an opportunity to see that often because she's too busy looking down at her fidgeting fingers. Like Addison, though, she seems nice enough.

Next I met Jason Degal. Not to go all teenage crushy on my first day, but this boy. Is. HOT. Totally in shape, he's gotta play some kind of sport. And he has these gorgeous blue eyes and this longish skater boy black hair that he flips with a flick of his head every few minutes. And lucky for me, Jason was sitting directly across from me. Yey!

Sitting next to Jason was a guy named Javier, a guy whose last name I forgot a second after I'd heard it (what can I say? too many names and too many faces). In case you didn't guess from the name Javier, he's Mexican. That means dark eyes, dark skin, and thick dark hair. He was wearing a letterman jacket with football patches all over it…another athlete it seems. He didn't really say much, but I think that's more because he was too busy trying to look tough and cool than because he's shy.

I also met Ashley Jameson and Haley Cuntner. I could tell they were best friends right off the bat – Ordinarily I'd think that's awesome, but these chicks just rubbed me the wrong way. It's not so much something they said, so much as the way they said it. Basically everything they said sounded like they were talking down to everyone. Unfortunately, both of them were prettyish, with bleached blonde hair and light brown eyes.

Besides Tawny and I, Rachel Kater was the only other girl. Her hair was crazy curly, just like mine is before I attack it with products every morning, but hers is a shade somewhere in between red and brown. She also had hers cut pretty short, so there wasn't a whole lot she could do with it. And I didn't know it when I first met her, but it turns out she's, like, super tall. As in…rival the boys tall. Not to stereotype, but I'd bet she's on the basketball team.

And last but certainly not least was Sully. Not sure if it's a first or a last name, but that's all I've ever heard him called…So it's just Sully I guess. Anyways, this guys's the clown of the group. He's always ready with a quick comeback or funny story. He's definitely not in any way, shape, or form cute…but his personality can make you think differently if you listen to him long enough. He's a good guy. Kink of a string bean though, and even taller than Rachel! You can always spot his floppy dirty blonde head above the crowd. Yeah, he's a good guy, for sure.

"So…yeah! That's the crew. Well, I'm gonna go grab something to eat before the stupid freshmen eat it all. Want to come with?" Tawny asked.

"Yeah sure." I grabbed my purse and stood back up. "Nice meeting you guys." I sent a smile around the table.

"You two," Jason said, returning the smile. I could feel my own smile growing.

"Be back in a minute." Tawny called over her shoulder as she started walking away, me following in her wake.


End file.
